Gene Autry was King of the Cowboys at Republic Pictures in Hollywood until he enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Gene was born Orvon Grover Autry on St. Michaelmas Day, September 29th, 1907, near Tioga, Texas . In the 1920s his parents moved to Ravia, Oklahoma, where Gene worked on his father’s ranch while at school. After leaving high school in 1925, Gene worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis-San Fransisco Railway. In the evening he sang to his guitar at local dances and over the local radio station in Tulsa. The famous humorist, Will Rogers, heard Gene singing on the night shift, and encouraged him to turn professional. Gene travelled to New York in the Fall of 1925 to audition for Victor Records who advised him to keep singing on the radio to gain experience. On October 9th that year Gene and his buddy, Jimmy Long, recorded two country songs for RCA Victor. However, it was with Columbia Records that Gene signed a contract in 1929. He sang on the Chicago WLS-AM radio show, “National Barn Dance” and his own show where he met singer-accordionist, Smiley Burnette. Gene and Jimmy Long together with Smiley Burnette formed The Gene Autry Trio. The trio and Gene performing solo were to achieve great musical success, rarely out of the music charts during the 1930s.

2017 reissue.

(20% DISCOUNT THRU 9-27-19) In this highly charged batch of great originals and Ellington standards, classic trombone great Lawrence Brown, with the help of his fellow Ellingtonian alto sax great Johnny Hodges, deliver eight lessons in articulate emotion. Backed by a specially chosen large group of friends and associates, they display the varied contrast between eloquent lyricism and inspired abandon! Featured alongside Brown and Hodges are Ellington alumni such as Paul Gonsalves, Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, Russell Procope, Harold Ashby, and Buster Cooper. Richard Davis, Jimmy Jones, Gus Johnson, and even Hodges' son, Johnny "Brother" Hodges, Jr. round out the band. This session was recorded in 1965, and is just swinging like crazy!

(3-LP + 3-CD +3-7" + Book) Straight from the fantasy vaults comes the 1969 Archive Box, documenting an unparalleled year of creative achievement by one of the world s most enduring rock bands Creedence Clearwater Revival. In this year alone, the band would release three incredible albums, have four hit US singles, perform on the Ed Sullivan show twice, tour the US and headline Saturday night of the Woodstock Festival. John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook would not only push their bayou-steeped music to great success in the US, but also across the globe. Drawing exclusively from archival material, this 1969 time capsule is intended to capture that year in real time, with interviews, reviews, charts and correspondences in addition to LPs and singles from around the world. Great efforts have been made to keep all contents as close to original reproductions as possible, including misspellings, flipped A and B sides, colored vinyl and much, much more.

(3-LP set)

Reissue.

Peanuts Greatest Hits features 12 of the most memorable recordings from the beloved animated Peanuts television specials, all with the sophisticated, yet accessible jazz stylings of the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Includes such classics as “Linus and Lucy,” “Christmas is Coming” and “Little Birdie.” Also includes new liner notes by Peanuts historian and Guaraldi biographer Derrick Bang.

Stacey is richly served by her quintet here. The partnership between her voice and Jim Tomlinson’s tenor saxophone is sublime. The latter captures the spirit rather than the substance of Lester Young, whose way it was, not to expand a tune with complex harmonic exploration, but to probe for the essence of it. Listening to Jim’s solos such as in “Sleep Warm”, the irrelevant padding, no pressing need to launch into paraphrase until the moment is ripe. So perfect is the integration of the group as a whole that, as a rhythm section David Newton, Colin Oxley, Andy Cleyndert and Steve Brown respond with faultless sensitivity, born of experience, to the mood of each song. Solos everywhere are of the highest class, with “Dream Dancing” especially evoking intoxicating stuff from piano and guitar. For me, nothing sums up the rapport and cohesion of the team more concisely than the warmly relaxed bossa nova treatment of “Close Your Eyes” - a shameless exercise in group seduction. I can’t conceive of a more auspicious debut than this. Humprey Lyttelton. Produced by Elliot Meadow All arrangements by Jim Tomlinson except Dream Dancing by Colin Oxley Recorded at Curtis Schwartz Studios, Sussex England on November 18 & 19, 1996. Recording Engineer: Curtis Schwartz. Gatefold sleeve.

Kenton’s decision in 1952 to revise his repertoire to include dance, jazz and concert music was a matter of expediency. Dance music paid the bills, jazz kept the musicians contented and the more advanced concert conceptions were stan’s personal preference. However in reality only the most extreme examples slotted neatly into one category. This CD is the first part of a three separate CDs featuring each of the different styles. It is fair to say that much of Stan’s music does fall primarily into one of the three categories, and this music on part one is certainly danceable as well as containing enough substance to provide enjoyable listening. All of Stan’s music is united by the unmistakeable Kenton Sound, and for the most part, a rich variety of jazz solo voices.

(2-LP set) Here on two 180 gram vinyl LPs are more classics from the legendary SF Bay Area rap star Mac Dre. Taken from the second CD of the double CD "Best of Mac Dre Vol 1" (THZ 1054), Part 2 includes California Livin, On My Toes, Young Black Brotha, Doin What We Do, Stupid Doo Doo Dumb plus 11 more. With 4 tracks per side the sound is BOOOMING! (Explicit Lyrics)

Steve Waters tells us in “The British Hit Singles” (RockHistory Ltd. 2013) that Glenn Miller and his Orchestra had thirty-four entries into the British charts of popular music between January 1940 and September 1946. Considering that the RCA masters for these HMV pressings were shipped from New York and had to run the gauntlet of the U-boat packs which prowled the Atlantic, it is fortunate that any Miller records were issued in wartime Britain. At the time there was a slight variation in the musical taste of the British and American audiences and there is one item which is glaringly missing from the British charts. That is Chattanooga Choo Choo! How could a record which was No.1 and a million-seller in the States fail to appeal to British record-buyers? After all, a similar record, Kalamazoo, was No.3 in the British charts. Let us celebrate the difference in musical tastes.

Jimmy Kennedy was born in Omagh, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland on July 20th 1902. He was educated in primary and secondary schools in the Province, but won a scholarship to Trinity College in Dublin. So, in the words of the song which he wrote with composer Michael Carr, Jimmy went South Of The Border to gain his Master of Arts degree. Talking of the song, though he favoured the Gene Autry version, it was Shep Fields And His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra who gained the coveted No.1 spot in the 1939 charts of American popular music. The title of the song was inspired by a postcard from Jimmy’s mother and sisters in Southern California; “Today we have gone to Mexico, South of the Border”. Jimmy started a teaching job in England after graduation, but gave it up and a chance of a career in the Colonial Service in Northern Nigeria, to become a songwriter in 1930. When World War II broke out on September 3rd 1939, Jimmy, volunteered for the Royal Artillery. By 1941 he was a captain in Cardiff, commanded by Brigadier Dennis Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher’s Husband) who appointed him Entertainments Officer.After the War Jimmy moved to the United States. For tax purposes Jimmy moved to Switzerland in 1960, but a few years later, when he heard of the tax benefits being offered to artists and writers in the Irish Republic, he decided to come home. Home became Thornbank House, Greystones in Co. Wicklow. In old age honours came thick and fast for Jimmy. In 1971 he was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for outstanding services to British music, by the Songwriters’ Guild, and the University of Ulster conferred on him an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Jimmy Kennedy lived to the age of eighty-one, dying in Cheltenham on April 6th 1984, having received an O.B.E. the year before.